^ 'APNewsBreak: Undercover agents target cybersecurity watchdog'.^ 'Harvey Weinstein Hired ex-Mossad Agents to Track Women Accusing Him of Sexual Assault'.'The Facebook and Cambridge Analytica scandal, explained with a simple diagram'. 'How a Private Israeli Intelligence Firm Spied on Pro-Palestinian Activists in the U.S.' The New Yorker. 'The Case of the Bumbling Spy: A Watchdog Group Gets Him on Camera'. Functions previously performed by the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), National Security Agency (NSA), and other intelligence agencies are now outsourced to private intelligence corporations. Some $56 billion (USD) or 70% of the $80 billion national intelligence budget of the United States was in 2013 earmarked for the private sector according to The New York Times ' Tim Shorrock. government is conducting espionage in the War on Terror. The private intelligence industry has boomed due to shifts in how the U.S. Former anti-corruption prosecutor Aaron Sayne said private intelligence is 'an industry that's largely undocumented and has very flexible ethical norms' as agencies collect and use sensitive information 'for one purpose on day one and some completely contradictory purpose on day two'. The Atlantic Council's Digital Forensic Research Lab described the activity of Archimedes Group as practicing 'information warfare'. Some private intelligence agencies use online perception management, social media influencing/manipulation campaigns, strategic disinformation (such as fake news production/propaganda production ), opposition research and political campaigns using social media and artificial intelligence such as Psy-Group, Cambridge Analytica and Black Cube. Middle East, Vietnam, Prague, etc.) or to investigate perceived threats such as environmental groups or human rights groups. crime, disease, corruption, etc.) or the region (e.g.

Private agencies have made their services available to governments as well as individual consumers they have also sold their services to large corporations with an interest or investment in the category (e.g. Some private intelligence agencies obtain information deceptively or through on-the-ground activities for clients. A private intelligence agency ( PIA) is a private sector (non-governmental) or quasi-non-government organization devoted to the collection, analysis, and exploitation of information, through the evaluation of public sources ( OSINT or Open Source INTelligence) and cooperation with other institutions.

Are there real secret agents